Charred for Life
by shadowlugia249
Summary: A Charmander TF. When a high school dropout rescues a strange animal called a Charmander, strange things start happening between the pet and its owner. Especially after a freak accident..


**Charred for Life**

_By shadowlugia249_

Author's Note: This story was actually the idea of Dragonide after reading one of my "Dreams Come True" stories. After some thought, I decided to put the story together and here it is now. Enjoy!

I hate my life... or at least I _used_ to. I was at the end of my rope when everything turned around when I got...

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me introduce myself. My name is Skyle Kelvin. My life used to be one disappointment after another before I met an unbelievable person that changed my life forever. That person completely turned my life around and gave me a new reason to live.

What am I rambling on about? Let me tell you about the day that my life changed forever...

I had been living with my mother for all of my life. She was the best! She helped me with my homework, took me out to a movie once a week and gave me every reason to live. Life was good.

But unfortunately, all good things must end at one point or another, and my mother was taken from me when I was 16. She had been out in her garden when she suddenly collapsed from a sudden stroke. Yet despite the doctors' best efforts to save her, she passed away in her coma without regaining consciousness. I was there when her heart suddenly flatlined. I will never forget that day.

No child should ever have to sit at their parent's deathbed at such an early age. I thought I'd never be able to take care of myself without her.

After my mom passed away, my schoolwork began to suffer. I failed every one of mid-terms in my 10th grade year and I was kicked off the basketball team when I accidentally passed the ball _over_ my teammate and hit him in the face.

To add insult to misery, I chose to drop out of school and even quit my job as a paperboy. Life for me was at an all-time low. I couldn't bring myself to continue the daily routine with my mom gone. My mother, who had once been my purpose for living, was gone and my life had spiraled out of control and into the gutter.

But despite being in a shocking state of depression, there was something inside me that kept me from committing suicide like most depressed teens do. I didn't know it, but there was something out there that would give my life a complete 180.

Some time after I dropped out, I was watching a show at home called "Animal Miracles" on Animal Planet. There was one story about a woman who had gone into depression like I had and was on the verge of collapse. But at the last minute, a friend of hers suggested that she get a dog. I can't explain the logic behind it, but her life completely turned around and the dog ended up saving her from getting stranded in a snowstorm.

I had never really believed in miracles, but with the state I was in, I was willing to try anything. I went to get some of the money I had gotten from my mom's life insurance and went out for a walk to the local animal shelter. I had never had a pet, but I was completely desperate for anything that would give me company. Besides, I've always secretly wanted a pet, but I never told my mom about it.

When I got to the animal shelter, I was greeted by the mixed funk of rescued animals. This place wasn't that big or that sophisticated, and you could look through a door in the entryway and see the animal pen. Walking up to the front desk, I rang the bell and a woman with blonde hair came up to talk to me.

"May I help you today?" she said in a kind voice.

"I'm here to look for a pet... if you've got any to spare."

The woman chuckled and pulled out a ring of keys. "Let's see what we can find for you."

She led me to the door to the pens and unlocked it. I was suddenly greeted by the sounds of dogs barking and cats meowing. The conditions looked more like a warehouse than a full-fledged shelter, but this place never had that much money to work with.

I walked from pen to pen, looking at the various animals. They had a cute Shih Tzu, an impressive Doberman, a pretty Calico and a great Great Dane. They were all good, but something told me that these animals just wouldn't work. I tried to picture myself with one of these pets, but the need and/or personality of each one just wouldn't work somehow with me.

Just when I was about to give up, I spotted a cage that had an iron pen inside of it that looked like it was keeping something especially vicious. For some reason, I noticed that the pen was giving off a slight heat wave around it. After looking at the other animals, I had to ask.

"What's in that cage?" I asked, pointing to the hot pen.

The woman who had let me into the pen looked at in concern. "You know, I'm not sure. We've never figured out what kind of creature it is. Whenever we let it out, things happen that we're still trying to fix."

"Like what? Can I see it?"

The woman's expression told me that she didn't want to, but figured to try it anyway. She went to a room behind a locked door in the room and reappeared a minute later wearing fire-retardant gloves. I looked curiously at her as she opened the cage door and then carefully opened the hot pen.

"Come on, little Charmy," she told the creature inside. "Someone wants to see you."

The creature that came out of the pen was unlike any animal I had ever seen before. If I was to call it by a name that already existed, I guess I would call it a "salamander". But I was pretty sure that normal salamanders were not as tall as my forearm was long and had red-orange skin. It had a reptilian-like face, but its eyes looked anything but. They were round and were colored with watery-blue irises. It had four short claws on its forepaws and had three ivory-colored talons on each of its footpaws. Its belly all the way down to the underside of its tail was a pale-orange color. But what was _on_ its tail made my eyes go wide.

A small, flickering, live flame was burning on the tip of its tail. I noticed that the woman tried her best not to touch it. I wondered what kind of force on earth could allow a live flame to burn on a creature but not harm it in any way.

"Is that... normal?" I said, pointing at the burning fire on the creature's tail.

"I guess so. We tried to douse it, but she never let us near it. It doesn't seem to bother her, so we just let it be. We have to keep her locked in a fire-proof container so she doesn't burn anything." She handed the creature to me and I took it carefully in my arms.

When the creature looked at me with those watery-blue eyes, I could immediately see a sense of longing in them. It seemed to be begging me to take it and to show it, it buried its muzzle in my chest and "spoke" just one word: "Char!"

I blinked as I stroked the slightly-warm scales on the creatures back. "Is it supposed to say that?"

The woman shrugged. "She always says just one word or parts of one word: "Charmander". So that's why we call her "Charmy". I've never seen a creature that spoke its own name that clear and loud."

I also noticed something. "You keep calling it a "she". How can you tell?"

"You can't really tell, but it has some female characteristics."

Good point. There was just one more thing. "Where did she come from? I've never seen a "Charmander" before."

The woman had a strange tale to tell. "Someone who used to have this Charmander in a cage came in with it saying that she had gotten loose as a regular salamander and had wandered into a fire ant colony. He didn't see it, but when he found her, she was covered in ant bites and... she looked like this. I really can't explain it."

I looked at the Charmander in the eyes again and it suddenly smiled and started speaking again. "Char! Charmander-Char! Chaaaar!!!" It seemed that she really liked me.

The woman seemed impressed. "That's funny. Charmy's never liked anyone before, but she really seems to have warmed up to you."

"I know." I was starting to sweat a little from Charmy's body heat. "This is a first even for me."

After some more discussion, I finally agreed to give the little creature a home. As long as it didn't burn down the house, I felt that this Charmander would be ideal for me as a pet. I also seemed to have gotten there just in time. If I hadn't come along, they would have had to put it down in just two days. I paid a relatively cheap price for Charmy – $65.50 – and took her home.

When I got home, I let Charmy out of her pen and let her look around. She was unsure about what to do when she walked into my living room. I noticed that she walked on two legs like a human did – something most animals with four legs couldn't do. Charmy wandered over to my couch and looked at the impressive piece of furniture. It reached out with its claw and touched one of the cushions.

Nothing happened, but it must have startled her because she yelped, "Char!" and ran over the safety of my legs. I chuckled and reached down to pet the poor thing on its warm dome.

"It's okay, girl. It won't bite."

"Char... Mander..." She sounded uncertain. Looking up at me with those watery-blue eyes, she raised her arms and started jumping up and down for me to pick her up. I did so and tickled her belly with my finger.

"You're really something else, aren't you?" Suddenly, I heard her tummy growl and I laughed at the gurgle it gave off. "Are you hungry?"

Charmy smiled at me and barked, "Char! Man! Char!"

"Okay... let's get you some food." I set her down and let her wander around while I prepared her dinner.

The woman at the shelter told me that Charmy never touched dry food and only at canned dog food heated up in the microwave. This told me that she was a carnivore – normal salamanders did not have this type of diet. While I was out, I had bought her some cans of wet dog food and a bowl for her. I had plenty of money left over from my mom's life insurance, but if I had to buy wet food for her for life, it would seriously eat into my funds.

I opened a tin that contained a mixture of beef and pork with thick gravy and tipped the contents into her bowl. After nuking it in the microwave for a minute, I called to Charmy.

"Charmy! Soup's on!"

She immediately came running into the room with her arms waving. "Char! Char! Chaaaar!!!"

She approached the food and paused. I wondered if something was wrong, but then she turned to me and bent low into what was an unmistakable bow. After leaving me to reflect in this, she went at her food with moth hands and shoveled it into her mouth.

Did I just see that? It looked like she was actually _thanking_ me! Normally, any animal just went at their food without acknowledging you. _Charmy_ had actually _thanked_ me! Weird.

I watched her eat until she suddenly froze up with plenty of food left. She started hacking and coughing as if she was choking.

"Charmy? Are you okay?"

Charmy coughed a little more and then seemed to be fine. There was a moment's pause before she sneezed, shooting a solid column of flame from her mouth and setting my blinds on fire!

Immediately, I grabbed the fire extinguisher and went to go put out the fire. When it was all out, I turned to face Charmy.

"Did you just... do that?! What was _that?!_"

Charmy flinched under my loud voice and come over to me to nuzzle my leg. "Charmander..." It sounded like she was saying, "I'm sorry."

I should have stayed mad at her, but then I figured that she really WAS sorry and probably didn't mean to shoot 20-foot flames at my blinds. I softened my tone and bent down to pick her up again.

"I'm sorry I yelled, girl. You've got a lot of spunk in you, don't you?"

Charmy smiled and looked up at me, nuzzling my chest again. I set her down and let her finish her food.

When she was done, Charmy climbed up on my bed, curled up and fell asleep with her head over her tail. I didn't want to disturb her, so I let her lay. To keep myself occupied until she woke up, I decided to watch TV.

Some time later, I started sweating heavily. I thought that the thermostat was lower than this and went to check it. It was where it should be when it happened. The temperature in the room suddenly spiked like a heat wave and I thought I was going to suffocate. I was sweating heavily and I found it difficult to breathe. The first thing that came to my mind was that the house was on fire, but I couldn't see or smell any smoke. Holy (explicit), this heat was going to kill me!

And then suddenly, the temperature in the house dropped substantially, cooling me off greatly. For the first time, I realized just how cold it was in here. My first thought was that the heater was faulty, but then one word came to my mind...

"Charmy..."

I crossed the rest of the living room in a few steps and was at my bedroom door within five seconds. Opening the door, I looked inside. The air was a little clammy in here, but that's not was shocked me.

Laying on my bed, apparently still fast asleep was...

Was that Charmy? No... it couldn't be... could it? I thought Charmy was smaller than that. This had to be something else. But just to be sure...

"Charmy?" I said softly to the sleeping creature. It simply rolled over in its sleep. "Charmy!" I said louder. The creature gave a grunt and kicked its leg.

"CHARMY!!!"

The creature I assumed to be Charmy opened its eyes, yawned widely, exposing several pearly-white fangs and sat up, rubbing its eyes.

"Charmy, is that you?"

The creature looked at me with eyes that I recognized as Charmy's and nodded. "Char." I noticed that _this_ Charmy had a much deeper, almost growl-like voice.

I carefully entered my room and approached the Charmy-like creature.

"Charmy... what happened to you? You look different somehow."

The Charmander had somehow grown in the past few hours. It was now as high as my hip and looked much more menacing. Its skin had gone from a regular orange color to a deep red-orange shade. The talons on its paws had grown significantly to resemble three very sharp white claws while the ones on its feet had grown slightly longer. It also had a slight hunch to it with a significant point to its skull now. What's more, the fire on its tail had grown significantly so it almost looked like a small torch flame.

"Charmander..." I said in awe, calling her by her real name. "You... you..." I didn't want to believe it – it was just too weird. But there was no other explanation. "You _evolved!_"

"Charmeleon!" said Charmy, saying her new name with pride. She then hopped down from the bed and looked up at me with longing.

"Charmy..." I said, looking at its funny expression. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Charrrr..." I could have sworn that she was _purring_ as she started nuzzling my leg and put her arms around my thighs.

"Charmeleon... you're creeping me out. Could you back off a little?"

Charmy obeyed, but the look in her eyes still haunted me. It looked like she was admiring me somehow. I just couldn't put my finger on it.

Looking out the window, I noticed that it was already dark. Wow. Where _has_ the time gone? I decided to turn in for the night and went to get Charmy somewhere to sleep.

While I was out in the living room, looking for a bed for her, Charmy wandered over to a picture that I had of my mother and I posing in front of a tree. Even though she only had three claws on each hand, she gently took the picture in both hands and stared at it with longing. She recognized me immediately but then looked at my mother in confusion. For some reason, she didn't quite get the bond that we used to share and carried the picture out into the living room to show me.

I saw her coming once I found blankets for her to use. She held up the picture and said, almost question-like, "Meleon?"

I took the picture from her and looked at it with longing myself. "This used to be my mother. She was the only family I ever had."

"Charmeleon?" Charmy seemed confused.

""What's a "family""?" I tried to interpret what she was asking me. Charmy nodded. "It's a... a..." Good point. How _could_ you explain something you had always taken for granted to an animal? "It's a group of people who are in the same bloodline that you share their deepest feelings for."

"Char?" Charmy didn't quite get it.

""Feelings?" Um... let me think..." I thought for a while before answering. "It's what makes you happy or sad or angry at something. You see, when you really care for someone and you really mean it, you develop a kind of relationship with that person. In some instances, if one person cares so much for another that they would be willing to do anything for them, the odds are that that person means a lot to them and they want to join together to form a family. You know..." I added, patting Charmy's head and sighing. "If we were the same species, we would be able to care for each other like my mother used to." I suddenly scoffed. "That'd be weird, though, huh? A pair of creatures like the two of us? I'd have to shrink and grow a tail with a fire on it before we could be in the same social pool. If only it was even _remotely_ possible, I'd take it." I looked at Charmy again and sighed. "You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?"

The response from Charmy was inconclusive. She looked at me with a look of longing that neither told me that she understood or told me that she didn't. I chuckled and scratched her under the chin.

"I just wish it were true that there was a relationship between us other than pet and owner. If only it _could_ happen..."

I walked back to my room with Charmy following behind me, the two of us deep in thought. I was thinking about my mother. Seeing Charmy give me that picture brought back memories that I didn't want unearthed until years down the road. She had been cruelly taken from me when I was just 16. It wasn't fair that I had had give her up so early in my life. We could have accomplished so much more if fate hadn't intervened. It just wasn't fair.

Charmy, meanwhile, was thinking about what I had said. A family was a group of people who could share their innermost feelings with each other. Being the only one of her species, Charmy never had the chance to experience the privilege of a family. In fact, I was the only one she had now – her old master had abandoned her after she had been mutated by those fire ant stings. Now there was an empty feeling in her heart that only another of her species could fill.

Even though she knew it was impossible, she couldn't help wondering what would happen if... (Author's Note: That's a secret!). Then again... it had happened to her – what if fate was to intervene again? Could there be something worth living for between us? Yes... it was worth a try. She wasn't fully grown, so it shouldn't do much damage.

Charmy was now faced with a dilemma: try and see if it works and open up a whole new way of life or ignore it and face the cruelty of loneliness for the rest of her life. Decisions, decisions. She decided to sleep on the matter. When the morning came, she would think some more on the subject.

Of course, I was completely oblivious to her thoughts at this time. I would not fully understand her intentions until (event withheld) happened some time later.

I crawled into bed and pulled the covers over me. I had laid some blankets on the floor for Charmy to sleep on, but was slightly taken off-guard when she climbed up on my lap and curled up on top of me.

"Charmy!" I said, trying to shift her aside. "I made your bed already!"

But Charmy had already fallen asleep on top of me and her increased bulk was a little difficult to budge without waking the sleeping dragon. I finally sighed and put an arm on top of her.

"Fine... _just_ for tonight. Tomorrow, you're sleeping on the floor."

Charmeleon did not answer, and the slow, steady combination of her deep breaths and beating heart against my chest soon lulled me to sleep myself. The warmth of her body soothed my own body and enabled me to achieve a state of sleep that I had never experienced before. In fact, if it wasn't for one very strange dream, I could have slept completely through the night without any thought whatsoever.

The dream in particular happened to involve me standing in the middle of a white mist, alone and defenseless. I felt very exposed here. There were predators out hunting for me and I was scared. There was an air of foreboding all around me.

Suddenly, I saw someone approaching me. It looked like a normal man who was out looking at the sights. He spotted me and knelt down, beckoning to me.

"Aren't you just a cute little fella? Come here, I got somethin' for ya." He had a slight Australian accent in his voice.

He seemed to be trustworthy. I meandered over to him but stopped just out of his reach. There was something not quite right about this man, but I couldn't quite tell what it was.

"I'm not gonna bite ya," said the man in a reassuring voice. "I've even got somethin' for ya."

He reached into his pack and pulled out a hunk of raw meat and held it out in his hand. "See? It's pork. I know how much little critters like yerself like this stuff."

It _did_ smell good and the offer was just too tempting. I inched forward, took the meat with my hands and transferred it into my mouth. It tasted so good _and_ it was free. This man was a very nice man. He even gave me my breakfast! What could possibly go wrong?

While I was eating, I did not see the man motion to another person to his left, who carefully snuck up on me with something in his hands. I was completely unaware that anything was wrong until I felt the burn of cold steel around my neck. Before I could react, it was too late.

I grabbed at the steel wire, dropping my meal and started thrashing. The man who had tricked me suddenly became excited.

"He's a feisty little fella, ain't he? Hold onto him now. Don't let him wriggle out! Watch out for that tail!"

As I struggled to get free, I tried to retaliate, but my throat was being constricted and I couldn't get any air to my lungs. I felt my feet lift off the earth and I was carried through the air.

I tried to call out, "Mama! Mama, help me! They're hurting me! They tricked me, Mama! Please help me!" I expected the men to drop me after they realized that they had lassoed a person instead of an animal, but one of the men merely said, "I ain't never heard a creature speak like _that_ before! What d'you think he's sayin'?"

I didn't understand. Why were they hurting me? Did I really look like an animal to them? I tried calling out for my mother again but then remembered that she was dead. I was on my own this time.

Suddenly...

"SKYLE!!!"

"Mama?" I heard her voice call out to me like a rumbling explosion. She was coming! She was coming to save me!

The two men who had been in the process of locking me in a steel cage looked up. They were completely dumbfounded to see my mother coming for them. As she approached, the white mist around me ignited into roaring flames. I could have cried for joy if this lasso wasn't choking me.

"SKYLE!!!"

My mother came out of nowhere and grabbed one of the men in each arm. I was amazed at how strong she was. The man who had the snare around my neck dropped me, allowing some of the oxygen to come back to my brain. I then looked up and watched my mother lift both men up into the air and throw them onto the ground like a double chokeslam. While they were both stunned, she turned to me and snapped the lasso with a quick pull of her arms. She then lifted me up to her and rocked me gently.

"Are you alright, Skyle?" she crooned to me. "Are you hurt?"

"No..." I said, rubbing my neck. "I'm fine. You really showed them. How did you do that, Mama?"

She merely chuckled as we started walking. "You may not believe this, but... I'm not your mother. I'm actually..." But before she could answer, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my arm like something had just bitten me and my dream short-circuited.

I sat bolt upright, sending Charmeleon flying. I wasn't quite sure where I was or what had happened to me as Charmy tried to get her own bearings. For a while, nothing happened, but then I felt a sharp pain in my right arm, causing me to clap a hand to it. For some reason, my shirt felt warm and moist. Quickly turning on my lamp, I examined the suspected area.

Holy (explicit), I was bleeding! And it wasn't like a normal scrape or cut – I was flat-out bleeding! After further examination of the area, I noted that there was a half-ring of small puncture wounds on both sides of my arm! What could have done this?!

But then I realized that there was only one thing in the area that could have bitten me...

"CHARMY!!!"

Charmy climbed up on my bed and hung her head. She knew she had done something wrong, but she tried to explain her mistake.

"Char! Char Meleon-Char. Chaaaar! Mele-Char-Mele."

Judging from the defensive tone she was giving me, she sounded like she didn't mean to bite me. I thought about this and then came to the conclusion that I must have touched her unexpectedly as the two of us slept, causing her to awake suddenly and bite me in self-defense. I didn't blame her – she was just acting on instinct. Still... I had to do something about this wound before I bled to death.

Sliding out of bed, I held my arm as I went to my bathroom to address the situation. But when I flicked the light on and looked at the wound, I saw something rather odd.

The bite had ceased bleeding and all that was left of it was a half-ring of white scars on each side of my arm. What's more, it had stopped hurting, but a warm, liquid feeling was flowing through my veins.

I then faced a problem – could Charmy's bite be poisonous? If it was, it wasn't really hurting. All I felt was a soothing warm feeling flowing through me. If it was neurotoxic, it wasn't killing my nerves, and if it was hemotoxic, I didn't feel dizzy or noxious at the moment. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself.

I looked out the window and saw that it was already light out. Walking back into my room, I saw that it was already 9:00. Boy, did I sleep hard! Charmy was clawing lightly at the door, growling slightly.

"I'm coming, girl. Just hold on a second. After taking a final look at my new scars, I got dressed and went out into the kitchen to make us some breakfast.

"Char Meleon!" growled Charmy as he tugged on the collar around his neck. "Chaaar!"

"I know, girl, but you _have_ to wear it. I could get in trouble if you don't have a collar out here."

We were in the park for a walk later that afternoon. I wanted to take Charmy out for a walk since I had no idea how long she had been locked up at that shelter. I had to have her on a leash even though she felt slightly uncomfortable with it on.

It was a beautiful day, but for some reason, I was sweating a _lot._ As I walked through the park, I could have sworn that I was coming down with something. It wasn't until I reached the restrooms that I felt like I was going to pass out from the heat.

Tying Charmy up outside the restrooms, I told her, "I don't feel well girl. Can you stay here until I come out?"

Charmy looked at me with a look of concern that should have told volumes, but I still couldn't understand her. Instead, she obediently waited for me as I stumbled into the bathroom and heaved my breakfast into the nearest toilet.

What was wrong with me? I felt like I was on fire and my breakfast was refusing to stay down. What's more, my skin was starting to burn and hurt like I had first-degree burns on them.

After blowing chunks again into the toilet, I started to feel pain in my backside. I clapped my hands to my bottom and suddenly felt something that shouldn't be there.

Looking around, I saw that a long, orange T.A.I.L. had just erupted out of my backside, ripping my boxers and shorts in the process! What the (explicit)?!?! What was happening to me?! It was a beautiful tail with rich orange scales on it, but I was a little preoccupied to notice that.

I suddenly felt the skin around my bitten arm start to itch. Pulling up the sleeve, I nearly passed out. My skin in that area had just turned a rich orange color and was significantly smoother and was now hairless! I was in shock as I watched the area around it be slowly consumed by the orange skin. It traveled up my arm, turning my hand and fingers orange and then hit my shoulder before it started spreading throughout my body like a miniature wave. I tried clawing at it, but it wasn't doing any good. Soon, I was completely orange except for an area on my chest all the way down to my new tail – _that_ area was a paler-orange than the rest.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I suddenly felt a pain in my arms again. The bones in them let out a _snap_ like a gunshot and broke into a million pieces. They then started to shrink and my fingers started to shrivel up until I was stuck with arms about a third their original size and five "digits" on each hand.

Next, I yelled out in pain as my ribs, backbone and organs gave a _snap_ and a _squish_ and started shrinking. All the while, my legs had just vaporized along with my skull until I was almost completely boneless. I couldn't move anything as I felt the fragments in my skull rearranged and find new homes in a much smaller dome.

Also, my face rearranged itself to become more reptilian-like complete with muzzle, fangs and slits on my muzzle for nostrils. My ears disappeared into my head, but I could still hear just fine, if not better. To top it off, every hair on my body suddenly fell of all at once, leaving me completely bald and naked.

Along with that, my legs were reduced to a fraction of their original size along with my ever-shrinking abdomen. My new tail also seemed to be losing its size as it scaled itself down to match my new height.

First, my legs reformed along with my feet, causing my toes to disappear into my flesh and causing three sharp talons to poke their way out of my skin. Next, my organs and my chest did a little rearranging and reformed to take on a new, stronger but significantly smaller shape and form. After that, my eyes seemed to fluctuate as they went from dark-brown to watery-blue. Finally, my entire body suddenly went numb as my new brain began calibrating all of my new nerves and senses. My human mind was not lost, but it WAS pushed to one side to make way for a more wild and free-spirited mind. I could still remember everything that had happened to me as a human, but a new mind seemed to take residence in place of my old one, claiming dominance over my persona. For the finishing touch, the tip of my tail ignited, signaling that the transformation was complete.

When it was all over, I found myself lying in a heap of what used to be my clothing. I crawled out of it and looked and my hands. I did and did not recognize them as my own at the same time. They belonged to me, but at the same time, they were completely alien to me. Looking behind me, I saw a new tail with a fresh burning flame on its tip. It felt strange to have a new appendage, but I soon realized that it was here to stay. I then realized what I had become...

I had become a Charmander!!!

My new mind was suddenly filled with panic-stricken thoughts. I was filled with fear and panic that was unnatural. I was vulnerable! I was weak! I was lost!

"Char? Charmander? Mander-Char! CHAAAR!!!" I said in my new, slightly higher-pitched voice. What I had really said was, "Huh? Where am I? I'm scared! HELLLP!!!"

My new instincts took over and I fled the bathroom just as another person was opening the door.

"What the—?!" cried the man as I ran out into the park. "What the hell was _that?!_"

Out in the park, I felt even more vulnerable. The world was very large and I was very small. There were things out there that wanted to hurt me!

My first thought was to find Charmy – she might have had something to do with this – but when I looked at where I had tied her up, I only found the remains of her leash and collar. The band had snapped in two as if she had suddenly grown out of it and she was currently missing in action.

I was filled with a new sense of fear. The only one who knew anything about this was missing and I was in a body that did not belong to me. Could things get any worse?

"Look! There it is!"

I guess so.

A group of animal control officers were carefully approaching me from the other side of the restrooms. I stood there rock-solid as they carefully approached with a large animal snare in their hands.

"That's funny," said one of the officers. "I thought it was bigger than that. Be careful... it could bite."

I suddenly panicked and took off running. I didn't want them to get me and they were going to hurt me if they got me. Of course, I didn't know that they were trying to help me, and that failed to register in my new brain. The officers were in hot pursuit, but they were hard-pressed to keep up with my speedy legs. I was even amazed at the speed I was going.

"He's a fast little guy," said one of the officers. "Go around to the other side of the playground and we'll try to coral him."

I ran under one of the merry-go-rounds and hid where they couldn't reach me. What was going on? What happened to me? Why were those mean people trying to hurt me? And... where was Charmy?!

I watched in fright as the animal control officers came to the merry-go-round and knelt down to look at me. "It's okay, little guy. We're not gonna hurt you. Come on out and we'll get you a good home."

But I didn't believe him. I tried backing up, but I suddenly felt something grab my tail and then quickly let go. I scrambled back into the center of the merry-go-round as the officer who tried to grab me yelled out in pain.

"Ow! Son-of-a—!!! Don't touch that fire on the tip of its tail – it's real, alright."

I was cornered. They weren't going to leave me alone. There was no hope of escape.

But then I remembered that I was a Charmander now and I could try to breathe fire. If Charmy could do it, how hard could it be?

I took a deep breath and tried to blow a jet of fire at the officer in front of me. Unfortunately, I was too inexperienced to do it right and ended up blowing a cloud of black smoke at the woman in front of me. It wasn't much, but it was enough to cause the officer to back off a little, giving me enough time to crawl out from under the merry-go-round and take off again.

"What the heck?!" said the woman, coughing and trying to clear her vision. "Did it just try and blow fire at me?"

"I don't know," said the man, getting up and following me.

"Char! Charmander! Chaaar!!!" I cried, running for my life. In reality, I was saying, "Help me! Charmy! Helllp!!!"

The next thing I tried to hide inside was a tunnel in the children's playset. I was drawn to it because of its orange color. I assumed it was Charmy, but my panic-stricken mind was not functioning properly at the moment. When I realized that it was _not_ Charmy, I was too scared to move and curled up inside the tunnel. Within a minute, the officers had me cornered again and it was all over for me. I was too scared to move and I soon had a metal snare around my neck.

I cried out for someone to help me, but I knew it was no good. Even my thrashing attempts to break free of the snare proved futile.

"Be careful, Shirley," said the male officer. "He's a wild one! Don't let him hit you with that tail!"

"I got a grip on him," said the female officer, trying to hold onto the snare as I thrashed around. "Get the cage before I lose him!"

"Stop! Please stop! You're hurting me! I'm scared! I want my mama!" I tried telling them to stop, but all that came out were a string of "Charmanders".

I knew that they wouldn't let me go. And when they brought me back to the shelter, I would end up being put down because of my wild nature just like Charmy was about to.

Charmy... I couldn't believe that she had abandoned me. I had raised her like one of my family and _this_ is how she repays me? If I survived this, I would never be suitable for adoption. I would fight tooth and claw to make sure no human ever wanted me after what Charmy had done to me.

Suddenly...

"SKYLE!!!"

Like the voice of an angel, I heard a strange yet familiar voice call out to my like a roar of fury and concern. The officers were in the middle of shoving me into a steel cage when they looked up... and could have sworn that they had seen a ghost.

Or a DRAGON for that matter. The creature that came out of the sky looked more like a dragon than any creature that I – or the officers – had ever seen before. Before I could get a good look at it, it had tackled the officers and wrestled the snare from their grasp. It then carried me up into the air for a second and then destroyed the loop around my neck with a quick _chomp_ on the metal.

Now that I could breathe a little easier, I looked up into the dragon's eyes... and gasped.

"Ch-Charmy?!" The only way I knew it was her was the look in her fierce watery-blue eyes.

"Yes, Skyle," said Charmy in a feminine voice that sounded like a growl to human ears. "It's me. I wouldn't ever leave you after the care you showed me." If I wasn't already in shock, I would have noticed that I could understand her fully now that I was a Charmander.

I took a moment to take in the new Charmy's details. She had obviously "evolved" again and now resembled what a dragon might look like if they existed. Her body had grown from four feet to well over six, and she had grown a pair of magnificent wings that were dyed blue in the middle with a red lining where the bones ran. She held me gently in her three-clawed paws that now looked like she had two digits and an opposable thumb on each one. Her tremendous girth was a blazing-orange that reminded me of when she was a Charmander only yesterday. It was also lined with a pale-orange belly that ran down to her long, thick, powerful tail. At the tip of it was a flame that made my own look like a spark. It was nothing short of a full-fledged torch flame. Her legs were short yet thick and powerful and her footpaws were tipped with three short, thick talons.

Her face had changed the most. Unlike her previous forms, her muzzle was long and was lined with razor-sharp teeth. Two long, orange "horns" grew from the back of her skull, giving her head that final reptilian additive. I could have sworn that she WAS a dragon after all this.

"Mother..." I said in awe. "You're alive..."

I couldn't believe what I was saying. My mother was supposed to be dead and here I was calling my own _pet_ my mother! Even Charmy seemed to be taken aback as she hovered in the air.

"No, Skyle... I am not your mother. I never intended to be your mother. I intended for _you_ to be my..."

But before she could finish, she looked down at the officers who had fled and returned with a tranquilizer gun. Before they could shoot, She transferred me to her back and said, "Hold on, my love. I'm going to make these humans pay for threatening _my_ mate."

I should have questioned her words, but she suddenly took a dive, causing me to hold on for dear life as she rushed the officers.

The officers tried to shoot her with a tranquilizer, but before it reached her, Charmy let fly a blast of fire from her muzzle that made all of her other attempts look like candle light, annihilating the dart in the process. I could tell she wasn't truing to hit them because the flames tore through the dart and spread out at their feet. As the officers tried to avoid the flames, she held out her arms and seized them both by the collars of their shirts and pulled them into the air.

I was amazed at her strength as she carried them screaming through the air and over the park. I knew she wouldn't kill them, but she wanted to teach them a lesson for trying to "harm" me by dropping them on top of the building that housed the restrooms. Before they could turn around, she pressed her claws against their necks right in the zone that caused you to become stunned and fall asleep.

"When they wake up," she told me when I looked alarmed. "We'll be far away from here."

"Huh?" I didn't understand.

"Skyle... you aren't human anymore. After what just happened, we will be fair game for hunters and animal control officers everywhere. Our only hope is to flee into the wild."

She had a point. I was certainly not human anymore. My only hope for survival was to stay with her.

But something about what she said seemed to bother me. "How did _you_ know that I would transform?! You had something to do with this, didn't you?! And where were you when I needed you the most."

Charmy didn't answer me until we were in the air again and were flying as far and as fast as we could before we were spotted.

"Charmy! You _knew_ this would happen! You _knew_ I would become a Charmander! You... You bit me on purpose, didn't you?!"

Charmy refused to speak until we were far away from the city and were in the cliffs near the beaches on the edge of the ocean. When we landed, she let me slide off her back and I turned my back on her in a huff.

"You planned this, didn't you?!" I yelled at Charmy, not looking at her. "You bit me so that I would become a Charmander and that you could just whisk me away from my life! How could you, Charmy?!"

Charmy hung her head and quailed under my voice. It was really something to see a massive dragon-creature like Charmy being yelled at by a pint-sized salamander like me. "I'm sorry that I took your life away from you, Skyle. But you must understand – you and I are loners in this world. We have no one to carry on our legacy and when we die, our lives are over. I transformed you because... because..." she struggled to find the right words. "I love you, Skyle."

I couldn't believe my ears! How could an animal truly "love" a person like me? Animals could never understand love and I knew it.

"You ruined my life, you pathetic excuse for a pet! You don't know what love is and you certainly didn't care when you bit me last night! I hate you! I HATE YOU!!! I wish you'd just go away and let me live by myself!"

Charmy then did something that I had never seen her do before – she started to cry. Real silvery tears began falling from her eyes and she let out a draconic wail by throwing her head in the air and bellowing sadly.

"I... I'm sorry, Skyle. I didn't mean to do this to you, but you must understand. Ever since I became a Charmeleon, I've been having these strange feelings for you. I began to feel emotions that only say one thing to me: "I love you, Skyle". I'm really sorry that this happened, but I _had_ to tell you my true feelings for you. You must understand that this was the only way. Now I have another of my species and we can live together as one."

I was touched by her words and my mood softened when I saw a behemoth like her weeping freely. I tried to keep up my tough attitude, but I wasn't doing a very good job of it.

"But _why,_ Charmy? Why did you have to transform me? I could have loved you even as a human. Why didn't you think about that before you bit me?"

Charmy softened her sobs, but I could tell that she was still sorry for the decision she made. "You told me yourself, Skyle. You said if there was a way for us to live together as the same species, you would take it. I couldn't become human, so I did the next best thing – I turned you into a Charmander. Just think about it – soon, you will be a Charizard, too. We can then live together and possibly save our species. I swear that I took that all into consideration before I bit you. I _swear_ I thought about it before I transformed you.

"Besides, Skyle, can you honestly say that you _don't_ feel better as a Charmander? Think about what I've given you before you answer me."

I did so. As I thought about it, being a Charmander didn't seem to be that bad. Despite not ever being able to return to the human world, I felt slightly stronger and more confident with my new form. I had always had a secret ambition to become an animal, but I had never told anyone about it and it was just now that I remembered it. Even better, I now had the power of fire – one of the most powerful forces of nature – at my disposal.

Even better than that, for the first time, I took in the enhanced senses of my new form. It seems that being a Charmander came with vision that was ten times sharper and clearer than my normal human vision. I never realized how much color there was in the world or all the different hues and shades there were along with it. I could also hear the insects and birds buzzing and chirping through my heightened sense of hearing. Even though you couldn't see my ears, I could hear things that made listening to the radio or watching TV inferior to these incredible sensations. And those smells! I never realized how strange and interesting the world smelled. I could smell fresh lilacs and berries over 100 yards away. Charmy herself gave off her own spicy-leather-like smell that I could recognize and pinpoint wherever she was in the area.

And if _that_ wasn't the best feeling of this new life, then the knowledge that I would "evolve" into something much stronger and more powerful over time certainly was. I had always wanted to see a dragon when I was growing up; I never expected to _become_ one! This just got better and better!

Overall, I felt that Charmy had done me a favor by turning me into a Charmander. My former human life had _nothing_ on this new life. No school, no bills, no rules! I was completely at nature's and Charmy's mercy!

"I'm sorry I yelled at you, Charmy," I said to her, walking up to her bulky leg and giving her a hug, just like she had done to me only yesterday. "I never thought about the favor you were doing for me. Maybe life as a Charmander (or Charmeleon or Charizard) won't be that bad. By the way..." I added out of curiosity. "I've been calling you "Charmy" all this time. Do you have a personal name that I never knew about?"

Charmy lowered her head and licked my bald dome affectionately. I shivered when her long, smooth tongue touched my skin, but welcomed the feeling anyway.

"My real name is "Charmelle", but "Charmy" was a nice nickname. You may keep calling me that if you want."

"Okay!" I hugged her head and she lifted me onto her back, smiling.

"Shall we go look for a new home, my sweet little Charmander?"

I cheered, "Char! Char!!!", which was me actually saying "Yeah! Let's go!"

Charmy spread her wings and took to the air with me perched between her horns. We soared over the cliffs near the ocean for a decent cave to call our own. We did not fear humans would ever find us, but we stayed in hiding for the time being. Right now, we were being hunted by sightseers and dragon fanatics, but were we were going, we could be at peace for all time...

...but that's not the end of my story! Not by a long shot! Six months after becoming a Charmander, I was lying beside my future mate inside our new cave, fast asleep, when I suddenly woke up and sat bolt upright. A strange feeling was running through my blood, making it even hotter than before. I started to sweat – something I almost never did anymore. I had a pain in my heart as if someone was trying to drive a stake through it.

"Ch-Ch-Charmy!" I said to my mate, trying not to pass out from the pain. "W-Wake up! Something's h-h-happening to me!"

Charmelle opened her eyes and looked at me in concern. My body was shaking visibly and I couldn't stop sweating. The heat in the cave had also gone up substantially. "Skyle? What's the matter, love?"

I grit my teeth in pain as I told her of the pain I was feeling. However, instead of being concerned, Charmy merely smiled. "You are evolving. It is a trait of the blood that now flows through your body. It's natural for you to feel this way. Don't worry; I went through the same thing when I evolved. Just relax and take deep breaths. It will all be over in a minute. Here..." She held out her paw for me to take within my own, comforting me and enabling me to withstand some of the pain.

"Th-Th-Thanks, Charmy. I'm g-glad you're here for me."

A minute passed with no sign of the pain letting up. But then a surge of pain ripped through my body, causing my tail flame to flare. I was surrounded by a white light and I felt my body change for the second time.

The feeling wasn't as unpleasant as the last time, but it wasn't that welcoming, either. I felt my spine stretch and start to elongate. My normally-straight back started to curve and hunch over slightly. On my paws, it felt like someone was trying to pull my claws out of their sockets. The same painful feeling was tugging at my footpaws, making it feel like my talons were going to be forcibly ripped from my body. Something was also pushing out of the top of my skull and my teeth felt like they were about to be yanked straight out of my gums. A pointed growth pushed out of my skull and my teeth became sharper and slightly longer. My jaws were like a vice – nothing could separate them from the forces I was applying. My skin was also burning underneath the surface like it had six months ago, darkening it and adding a red-ish tint to it.

The whole thing took less than three minutes. When it was finally over, I fell onto my front from exhaustion. Charmy let me lay there, recovering in peace.

When I woke up, I got gingerly to my feet and held my head from the slight dizziness I was feeling now. "Is it over?" I said in a slightly more bass-like tone of voice but still recognized as my own.

"Yes," said Charmy, wrapping a wing around me and pulling me close to her chest. "Welcome back to the world, my sweet little Charmeleon."

I looked at my paws and examined my new three-inch claws with amazement. I had evolved into a Charmeleon and I was that much closer to becoming a Charizard. What's more, I felt significantly stronger and more powerful than I had as a Charmander. I felt so confident that I felt I could now take care of myself without Charmy always being there for me. She had always cared for me and brought me food from her nightly hunts, but now that I was the Charmander equivalent of a teenager, I could now go off on my first hunt with Charmy following close behind me.

"How do you feel, my love?" said Charmelle, stroking me on the cheek with her feather-like tongue.

"I feel... good," I said slowly. "I feel like I could do so much more than I could before."

"I'm glad for you." Charmy yawned widely and then lied back down. "Now let's finish our sleep. We can go on your first hunt in the morning."

I yawned as well and then curled up next to her. She hooked a wing over me like she always did to shield me from the sunlight and the two of us soon fell back to sleep.

Not too long after that, I managed to bag my first kill with the help of Charmy. It wasn't too hard to do – with our ability to breathe fire, I managed to create a Flame Wheel around an unsuspecting bison. The ring was large enough for it to assume that it was safe but small enough to slowly suffocate it with the smoke coming from the grass fire.

We waited until it was dizzy from the smoke and dropped to its knees and then I went in and delivered a lethal Slash attack to its throat. My muzzle wasn't large enough to bite it, but a Slash to its jugular was sufficient enough to dispatch it. When I finally became a Charizard, I would be able to sink my fangs into an animal and tear meat from its body and swallow it whole. At the moment, I had to rely on my claws and fire abilities to bring my prey down.

When I brought down my first animal on my own, Charmy was so proud that she let me have the choicest cuts before she ate the leftovers. I have to hand it to her. I may not be her son, but she treated me like one all the same. Since we were the only two of our kind, we had to look out for each other to survive. We never went back into human civilization since we would be considered living legends. And since we didn't want to draw any unwanted publicity, we made our home in the wild.

The first few weeks were the most difficult for us. We had to find an ideal location where the game was plentiful but was also out of range of humans. We also had to find a cave that would be suitable for our (secret!!!) but at the same time be out of range from wandering eyes. I also had to deal with living off the land and Charmy had had to provide for me until I had evolved. If I had been allowed to fend for myself as a Charmander, I would have been dead within a week. And even though she had never been out in the wild herself, Charmy quickly adapted to life as one of the wild. I owe so much to her for caring for me all this time. When I finally became a Charizard, I would finally pay her back the best I could. However, unlike Charmy, my evolution took some time to occur. I still do not understand how she could have jumped two stages in less than 24 hours. I've even asked her what could have allowed her to do that, but she merely shrugged and said, "It was my time." Go figure.

But that didn't stop me from dreaming about my _own_ evolution. I had waited six months to become a Charmeleon and I could hardly wait to become a Charizard.

Little did I know that that time was not for another year down the road. I had been patiently waiting months with Charmy for it to occur so we could officially call each other our mate. And when it did occur, I couldn't have been more excited.

Charmy and I were out flying over the forest in our area one day, just enjoying a peaceful flight in the sunlight when my body suddenly seized up. I couldn't breathe and my heart was pounding through my entire body.

"Ch... Charmy!" I gasped, clutching a paw to my chest. "I... I think... it's happening! Hurry!"

Charmy looked back at me and noticed that I was in a lot of pain. She then nodded and took a steep nosedive towards the ground. "Hold on, Skyle. I'm right her for you."

The pains in my chest felt like they were tearing my heart to pieces as I slid off Charmy's back onto the ground. I was hurting, but I knew that this was the last time it would happen in my lifetime. I held Charmy's paw tight as I started hacking and coughing, spitting up sparks and coughing up smoke.

"Hold on, Skyle," she said, nuzzling my back as I continued to cough. "It will all be over soon."

I managed to give her a shaky smile before by body arched from a sudden pain and I was engulfed by a white light like I had been when I became a Charmeleon. Unlike the last time, I felt my body grow much more significantly. My spine stretched and my ribs snapped before they grew longer. My legs and arms also snapped in several places like quickly snapping super-dry branches. I could feel the talons on my footpaws stretch with a familiar feeling of them being ripped from their sockets. The digits in my forepaws also spread out so that I now had flexible, clawed digits again while my body and tail gained more muscle than anything else.

The bones in my shoulder blades gave an audible _crack_ and started to grow outwards, pushing the skin out of my body and forming my new wingbones. Once they reached a decent length, the area in-between the bones began to stretch and fill out with navy-blue leather-like webbing. This was a good thing in a way because now there was a way to tell the difference between the two of us. Charmy had clear-blue skin on her wings while mine was slightly darker and more navy than anything else.

During all this, I felt my face and short muzzle grind and push out, making my face more draconic to match Charmy's. Also, I felt new teeth and fangs fill my mouth while the old ones took on a new sharpness and thickness than ever before. To top it all off, my skull began to push out again, but this time, they pushed out at _two_ points to form my new Charizard horns. Just then, my whole body went numb again as my brain recalibrated the nerves in my body to fit my new form.

When the pain finally subsided, the flame on my tail flared and grew larger than ever before. Not only that, but my clear-blue eyes seemed to have gained a new flicker of "dragon fire", signaling the end of my final transformation.

I was a little shaky when the evolution ended and I looked at Charmy in the eyes. She smiled sadly and nuzzled my neck with her nose. "How do you feel?"

I took a moment to take in the raw, pure power that now flowed through my veins. I was now all-powerful and nearly invincible from the superheated blood that was now mine. For the first time, I truly understood what Charmy felt ever since she became a Charizard. She had become super-powerful with her latest evolution and was proud that I was feeling the same sensation in my own body.

"I feel... great!" I said in a growling voice that I still recognized as my own. "Let me show you."

To prove how powerful I felt, I reared back my head and let fly a powerful jet of fire that Charmy called a "Flamethrower". It went pretty far and high and Charmy smiled as she hooked a wing around my shoulder.

"Wow... 30 feet! You're pretty good for a first-timer... huh?"

The fire stream not only reached 30 feet into the air, but it also split into a star-like shape that we respectively called...

"A Fire _Blast?!_ Amazing!" She looked at me and growled low. "You're a natural, love."

I rubbed my own nose against Charmy's belly and put a claw under her chin. "Now that we're finally together... wanna go for a little flight over the mountains?"

She growled pleasurably and started flapping her wings. "I don't see why not." She took off with me following close behind her.

For the first time, I could finally compare flying to nothing like I had ever experienced before. Riding Charmy's back was one thing, but being in total control of the flight was something completely different. The skies belonged to us as long as we were in the air and no creature could trump our movement, agility or grace. We rolled, dived and spun in the air high above the ground below us. We were truly lords of the sky.

As we flew over the mountains near our cave, Charmy suddenly locked her claws with mine and we began flying straight up to well over 20,000 feet. I was slightly taken aback at her persistence.

"What are we doing, Charmy?" I said as the air began to thin out.

Charmy grinned smugly and licked my cheek. "Continuing our legacy."

I realized what was going on a split-second before we turned over in mid-air, folded our wings and dropped like a ton of bricks through the air. I hadn't realized that Charmelle had wanted to do... that... so soon. But then I realized that I had wanted this the whole time as well. I decided to go with it. Besides, I had a responsibility to keep our species going if we were to survive. I was a Charizard now, and soon, I would be a father.

As we plummeted through the air, we held ourselves close to each other, sharing each other's body heat and our trust in each other that we would pull through with this. The wind flew past us at breakneck speeds as we stared into each other's eyes. I was determined to show Charmy that I could do this and I trusted her that we would _not_ become a pair of Charizard pancakes on the jagged rocks below.

"Are you ready, my sweet little Charizard?" she said softly as we approached the 1000-foot mark,

I grinned and licked her cheek. "After you, love."

The two of us nodded and separated from each other just 500 feet from the ground and soared off in two different directions. Our own unique mating ritual had been completed and our legacy would soon pass on.

We met back at the cave a few minutes later, exhausted and satisfied. We had been through a lot today and we just wanted to rest for tonight. Tomorrow would come soon enough and I would begin my first full day as Charmy's mate.

About six months later, I flew back to our cave with a half-bison carcass in my claws. I was very excited for today. Charmy and I were expecting and I wanted to make sure my mate had enough strength for when it happened. To make sure she did, I had saved an extra portion of this carcass just for her.

As I landed on the cliff's edge, I carried the bison into the cave and placed it in front of Charmy. She was too bloated to move and she was very tense for her expecting labor.

"I brought you something, dear," I said, tearing a hunk of meat out of the carcass for her. "You need this more than I do."

"Thank you, Skyle," she said weakly. "I was wondering if you would make it in time."

"You know I'd never miss an event more important than this. How do you feel?"

Charmy sighed and took the meat from my jaws, chewing it slowly. "They're moving around a little. I think it's almost time."

We said nothing for another 15 minutes. Just then, Charmy went into a fit of gasps and hacks as she forced herself to push. I held her paw in my own as she slowly produced our young.

To cut a long story short, Charmy managed to lay three large, flame-colored eggs and then fell asleep soon after. I was practically in tears. The eggs looked healthy and they would soon hatch into beautiful new Charmanders. I couldn't wait until they hatched and our species could start to populate the planet.

Two months later, the fruits of our labor gave way as one of the eggs started to shake and rock. After weeks of guarding the eggs and gently breathing flame on them to keep them warm, Charmy's efforts were about to pay off.

One of the flame-colored eggs started to chip away, revealing a tiny, orange arm. It grabbed at its shell for a minute before retracting. Suddenly, eggshell went flying as the egg exploded, revealing a tiny, orange, male Charmander.

"Isn't he just precious?" said Charmy, licking the birth fluids off the tiny dragon.

"Words cannot describe my feelings, love," I said, smiling honorably. "It is a gift from God."

"Yes... Charley will certainly live out his life with the knowledge that his parents gave their best interests for him."

Soon after this, the other two eggs hatched, revealing another male Charmander and a female one as well.

"Charlotte," she called the female one. And for the final male: "Skyle... after his amazing father."

I smiled and rubbed Skyle's tummy, watching him giggle and reach for me. It was certainly something to see my next generation lying before me at such an early age. This was one step closer to making my mark on the planet's future. I had been given a great opportunity – I had been born a human, but I will die as a Charizard with a mate that had cared for me just like my human mother once did. To me, that meant the world. I had been given a greater existence and I was going to live it out to the fullest no matter what came my way.

"I am proud that we are together, Skyle," said Charmy as she huddled the three Charmander together. "Tell me... do you truly love me... AND your new life?"

I thought about the day my life changed forever. I had been transformed from a nobody into something the world had never seen before. I had been given a higher purpose in life and the outcome of that life was lying right in front of me. I would say that was worth living for.

"Yes... my sweet little Charizard."

**END**

Coming Soon from shadowlugia249:

"Conflict of Interest Blue Version: Sweet Suicune!"

"Conflict of Interest Red Version: The Entei Enigma"

"Conflict of Interest Yellow Version: Raving Raikou"


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